Yes, that is the incidental additional advantage. Since they had to stop somewhere to pick up enough fuel to make it to New York, they might as well make it worth the while for their customers while they are at it.

Does it actually help? I've read a lot of negative reviews about how preclearance sounds great at first but can often move even slower than a conventional clearance line and usually dumps you into a sterile holding pen with little or nothing to see or do until boarding. I've also read how preclearance often allows one person's random CBP problem to hold up everyone traveling on the same aircraft so they can try to sort it out before departure. I've only had one preclearance entry myself, and honestly didn't think it was that bad, but in general I tend to avoid them based on the comments of others.

I've used pre-clearance at Canadian airports many times, and it's been easy and quick. Mostly there are similar amenities available airside as there are for domestic flights.

I've actually used pre-clearance in SNN, though that was 14 years ago and was for a flight originating at SNN, so not really the same as the LCY-SNN-JFK example. I can see how a "rogue" passenger may slow things up (sort of like on the Adirondack or the Maple Leaf, I suppose) but the vast majority of preclearance flights do not follow this pattern of using preclearance as a fueling stopover on a longer flight.

For the Canada-originating flights, there doesn't seem to be any waiting around for people to clear CBP...you're either there for the departure or you're not. But that's simply my perception...I don't actually know that to be the case.

LOL yes! When we went to Newfoundland my mother was talking about Gander's airport, unfortunately the highway more or less bypasses the town so we didn't get to see it.

One of my former coworkers was stranded in Gander for 3 days flying back from a week of partying in the Balearics on 911. He said the locals were lovely to the stranded passengers.

The west coast of Newfoundland is lovely - looks a bit like Norway's west coast, Gros Morne in particular. Plus all the viking sites to see... I don't remember the ferry being 9 hours though. I read something recently about shelved plans for a fixed link - rail, like the Channel Tunnel - connecting Newfoundland to the mainland via Labrador..

As far as I can tell, there isn't. Apparently only a single outfit called Air St. Pierre flies there, and it does so from four or so locations in Canada including Montreal, once or twice a week. Those are its international flights. Surprisingly it also has a domestic flight to Miquelon 6 days a week. It is a 15 min flight. One way fare from Montreal is north of $600. The other locations in Canada that are connected to are Halifax, St. Johns and Sydney.

I've read a lot of negative reviews about how preclearance sounds great at first but can often move even slower than a conventional clearance line and usually dumps you into a sterile holding pen with little or nothing to see or do until boarding. I've also read how preclearance often allows one person's random CBP problem to hold up everyone traveling on the same aircraft so they can try to sort it out before departure. I've only had one preclearance entry myself, and honestly didn't think it was that bad, but in general I tend to avoid them based on the comments of others.

I had no issues using the relatively new preclearance facility at Dublin a few years ago. The lines were of reasonable length, and the post-customs gate area had at least one newsstand/snack shop. (If I recall correctly, there are 6-8 gates there -- it's much bigger than the term "holding pen" would imply.)

As far as I can tell, there isn't. Apparently only a single outfit called Air St. Pierre flies there, and it does so from four or so locations in Canada including Montreal, once or twice a week. Those are its international flights. Surprisingly it also has a domestic flight to Miquelon 6 days a week. It is a 15 min flight. One way fare from Montreal is north of $600. The other locations in Canada that are connected to are Halifax, St. Johns and Sydney.

It’s a quick flight from St. Pierre to St. John's to connect with transatlantic flight there but another summer option is Air St Pierre to Halifax to connect with the French airline ASL that flies to Dublin and onto Paris.....also on a '737.

According to wikipedia. St. Pierre's runway can handle 737's and A320's, which (in the spirit of this thread) would indicate perhaps the ability to handle a flight to/from Paris. I'd wonder if the terminal facilities could really handle that, though.

At any rate, Air St. Pierre markets connections to/from Air France in Montreal, which is how I suspect most locals get to/from the motherland. I believe that is the only possible one-stop itinerary.

I remember when 737s were strictly "short-hop"...remember California's PSA?

I learned otherwise when I did an LAX > BOS non-stop on a 737 a while back!

Last week I flew Copa Airlines from Panama City (the one with canal, not Florida) to San Francisco on a 737-800 (regular, not BBJ). 7hr 37min scheduled flight time (hah! someone got creative there) and we did it without breaking a sweat.

British Airways operates a flight between JFK and London City (LCY) using an Airbus A318 configured with 37 Club World seats - one and one. .

A bit off topic....but that reminds me of when AA was flying Fokker F-100's out of Dallas Love Field with only 56 business class seats, sold at coach fares, in order to comply with Wright Amendment restrictions on certain routes at the time. They did this to compete with Legend Airlines....

If you're traveling to a major city with many international arrivals, the big appeal of US Pre Clearance is that (generally) you'll have a more even flow of passengers at a departure airport than an arrival airport. For instance, even at DUB, where maybe a dozen or so flights use the USPC facility every morning, each plane load of passengers arrives at the gate over a 60-90 minute period, whereas an arriving aircraft dumps its entire plane load of passengers all at once.

Flying DUB-PHL a few years, US Pre Clearance added little or no extra time to my journey at the start (because I was already checking in a good 2 - 3 hours ahead of departure), and actually enabled me to arrive earlier because without immigration to go through in PHL I was able to catch an earlier connecting flight to my onward destination.

I've experienced customs and immigration lines of up to two hours at LAX, which is not a great experience after up to twelve hours on a plane.

One question has always distracted me - once I have passed through US Pre Clearance at Dublin Airport, for instance, am I technically in/on US territory?

...
One question has always distracted me - once I have passed through US Pre Clearance at Dublin Airport, for instance, am I technically in/on US territory?

No, you are not. Although cleared through US CBP, you are still in Ireland and subject to Irish law. So, rob the post-clearance Starbucks at DUB, and you'll be arrested by the Irish police and tried in Ireland. (That assumes there is a post-clearance SBX at DUB, but isn't there one everywhere? )

More to the point, if there are any differences between laws and application of laws between Ireland and the USA, the Irish versions apply to the pre-cleared area at DUB just the same as in the rest of the airport.

More to the point, if there are any differences between laws and application of laws between Ireland and the USA, the Irish versions apply to the pre-cleared area at DUB just the same as in the rest of the airport.

Yeah pre-cleared is probably post-cleared as far as the Irish are concerned and they want to make sure that their law applies there of course, at least until the wheels of the non-Irish registered plane leaves the ground.

So what happens if the flight is canceled? Do you have to re-enter Ireland (or Canada, etc) through customs/immigration? Or can you simply walk back out to the landside terminal? I've never had that happen despite using pre-clearance dozens of times.

So what happens if the flight is canceled? Do you have to re-enter Ireland (or Canada, etc) through customs/immigration? Or can you simply walk back out to the landside terminal? I've never had that happen despite using pre-clearance dozens of times.

Assuming you are leaving the USA departure area, you have to "re-enter" Canada through customs/immigration just as if you had arrived from the USA. I understand it can make for some interesting exchanges concerning your arriving flight (none) and where you came from (departure gate).

I've had flights cancelled @ Pearson ( Toronto) after clearing US C/I and had to walk down the Very Long Hall ( do they still use this??) to "re-enter" Canada to clear Canadian C/I.

We were escorted by an official, not sure if they were American or Canadian,they were not in Uniform???

I never buy "Duty free" stuff so not sure about the procedure for this???

Edited by Bob Dylan, 17 May 2016 - 07:25 PM.

"There's Something About a Train! It's Magic!"-- 1970s Amtrak Ad
"..My heart is warm with the friends I make,and better friends I'll not be knowing,
Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,No matter where its going!.." -Edna St. Vincent Millay

theres a very easy way to skip the queues to enter the US, when completing the landing card it asks if you have "visited a farmstead" being the truthful law abiding UK citizen I realised recalled how 6 months earlier I had walked thru a farm on a hike so obviously ticked yes. This meant I had to join a very short queue to be questioned further and was asked when and where I had visited a farm and after checking that I had not brought my hiking boats with me and thus the US cattle industry was safe with my entry was allowed to proceed into the country, the assumption being that I had been that paranoid to disclose such an innocent and irrelevant matter I wouldn't dare bring anything else into the country